Cedar Point - Summer 2024 Trip Report
As summer winds down and the 'summer' season of Cedar Point makes it way to its end (Last day of my summer pass is 9/2/2024). This concludes the 'summer' season at Cedar Point. From my 14 visits to Cedar Point this summer I would like to share to you all my visits I made this summer and the corresponding rides that I went on. It's been a fun summer but sadly all things must come to an end which comes with this post.
For a fair warning this will be a LONG post so if you do not want to read a lot it is totally okay to brush past this post. OK! Time to start off with the first ride!
0 - Rides: Top Thrill 2 - This ride should have been called "Top Thill 2-dissapointing" due to the fact that I had high hopes for this ride and this was genuinely the only ride in the park that actually "scared" me. Sadly, my first visit to cedar point this season was May 28th, so I was a few weeks late to the grand opening of this ride. However, I have ridden the original top thrill, so if the new one is similar to that (but even more extreme), I am sure to enjoy it when it finally comes out (Late 2025 or Early 2026 my guess).
1 - Ride: Valravn - I am going to be quite honest this ride gets way to much praise for what it really is. Like I get that it is one of the tallest dive coasters, but that does not justify the wait time/ride time ratio. This ride will ALWAYS have a wait time of 30+ min and for the 20-30 seconds of actual ride time that you get its really not worth it. I have never once got off this ride and said "that was worth it" or satisfied with my experience.
1 - Ride: Iron Dragon - This is another one of those kiddie-ish coasters that don't do too much for me but its still a decent ride. I probably would have more rides on it if it was a walk-on and closer to where I am usually at in the park. My favorite part has to be the second drop. I also really like the atmosphere of this ride.
2 - Rides: Wild Mouse - This ride is not too bad for the fact it is a family-ride. As a full fledged thrill-seeker I can understand why people may really enjoy this ride, it has some fun twists and turns. However, its just too mild for me and the capacity isn't the best either. However, this is probably the best Zamperla attraction in the entire park. Its buttery smooth and it adds to the boardwalk atmosphere to the park.
4 - Rides: Cedar Creek Mine Ride - The only time you will catch me riding this ride is really for the memes. This ride is more thrilling in the fact that it is bumpy and the structures sway than the drops on the ride. The only element I like is the helix near the end. As an Arrow coaster, it features the rough transitions and the beautiful lift hill sound. You don't get to hear that lift hill sound once, but twice! Overall, its a below-par coaster but its fun to ride for the memes.
6 - Rides: Maverick - Before you start hating on me for having such a low ride count for this ride for 14 visits, I just want to say that I did not buy FAST LANE at all this entire season and only had the summer pass and that's it. This ride is extremely fun and most definitely one of my favorites, but its hard to get on for an impatient person like me. This ride is defiantly a back-seat type of ride (I had a front seat ride and didn't think it did too much overall). This ride also has my favorite and in my opinion the most extreme drop in the entire park with that sweet 95-degree angle. The second launch is also extremely fun. However, I have heard claims that this ride has some of the most extreme airtime, I would have to disagree, while the first airtime hill is extreme its very predictable and "calculated" like other coasters I will discuss later.
9 - Rides: Corkscrew - This is embarrassing that this ride has more rides than Maverick but look where we are now. The only reason why I rode this ride is that it was nearby where I was mostly, some of my favorite coworkers (That I met from going to cedar point so much) were there, and that my friend forced me to go on it. While I am not an arrow coaster hater, this ride is the roughest ride in the entire park. I have had a few decent rides on it but not great. The only thing good about this ride is the short wait times, the somewhat impressive airtime hills and the fact that your super close to a freestyle place to get some water. To make matters worse the seats on this ride are super uncomfortable and the scenery (pre-hallo weekends) is just random buildings. At least you have an extra long arrow lift hill to listen to.
9 - Rides: Raptor - This ride is an absolute people eater if they are running 3 trains and are doing spiels "Raptor is ready" etc. If you time it right this ride will be a walk on and you can get right on. One thing that I've heard about this ride is that the "head-banging" is bad. Either I got a super buff neck, or this isn't a problem for me, because I never have had this issue. This ride does feature some intense moments such as a cobra roll, but in the end of the day, its not my kind of ride. I will ride it if there is no wait, but you won't see me marathoning this ride.
10 - Rides: Rougorou - I am going to be completely honest, I have no idea when I got all these rides on this ride. I must have went on it when it was empty and stayed in my seat or something. This ride is one of the rides that has not aged too well and I believe that something more impressive can take its place (Maybe a new wooden coaster?). The queue line takes longer to go through than to actually get on the ride, and once you are on the ride you take longer to get off of it than it took to get on. The elements of this ride are decent and most, but despite Raptor this one actually does have 'head banging' and some nasty B&M rattle near the end. I have had some good rides in the back where the end was quite intense and reminded me of the turns on Maverick, but just a water downed version. The water also stinks too ):
11 - Rides: Millennium Force - I am going to get a lot of hate for this, but I see this ride as forceless. I could be biased as I literally only got to ride on the yellow-train for some reason, but it just didn't do too much. The layout focuses way to much on overbanked turns that get boring after riding the ride more than 3 times a season, and only have 2-3 (depending if you count the last one by station) okay airtime hills. The hills are fun and last for awhile but are tame and calculated once again. In addition, this ride has seen some of the worst dispatch times, 3/2 train operation don't change the wait time, and its been down a lot. Hopefully this ride can go back to its former glory, because this ride isn't aging too well. Also it may just be me, or the yellow train, but I've had bumpy rides on this ride and this ride isn't "smooth" like people claim.
11 - Rides: Blue Streak - This is one of the rides that I am really trying to get myself to like. It's definitely old, and it definitely rough but not the worst ride in the world. If you are lucky this ride will be a walk on during some hours of the day. However, this ride has some faults, they pick your seats a lot (Bad for a ride where the seat depicts your ride), the dispatches are slow (Its an old ride so there is not much it can do), the queue is the most boring in the entire park, and it just isn't too fun. However, I have also had some great rides on this ride as well. I found that seats such as "5", and "8" provided pretty fun experiences where the airtime wasn't outright painful. The one thing about this ride is that the restraints do not go down far enough for a skinny person line me such that I have a good 2-3 inches of wiggle room which is outright scary and borderline dangerous for this ride.
14 - Rides: Gatekeeper - When I started going this season in early May this used to be my favorite ride to ride again and again. The wait times are usually really short near the end of the night, and the views on this ride especially at night are fun as well. Over time though, I started to ride this ride less and less as I changed my dynamics of an enthusiast. I used to a B&M coaster enjoyer and really enjoy the inversions, but not I care less about inversions and more about raw airtime. This ride is extremely lacking in the airtime department, but that is okay as that is not the dynamic of this ride. This ride features some impressive hangtime and a wicked amount of inversions that makes me think that stuff is falling out of my pocket every time. Overall, its a solid coaster and it deserves to be the keeper of the gate.
And now its time for my three favorite rides in the park, which I know two of them will get hate:
22 - Rides: Steel Vengeance - While this is technically my 2nd favorite coaster in the park in terms of ride counts it is in the third spot due to being a popular ride with higher wait times. This ride is perfection and is an absolute airtime UNIT! No other ride has this much airtime (In terms of total duration) in the entire park. The ride is buttery smooth and the theming is fun. However, I don't think this coaster is perfect. When the line runs two trains the queue can move at a snails pace, and on top of that I never know if the left or right side of the line is faster (I always pick the wrong one), and I think the ride looses most of its momentum after the mid course break run. Let me explain, the first half is all about strong airtime hills and gutsy inversions which are incredible, however after the mid course break run its really just the same two elements being repeated and this gets boring after riding the ride more than 5 times a season. The night ride makes up for it though, as these elements are significantly more thrilling in the night lighting. Overall, an extremely solid coaster that is a classic enthusiasts favorite. Especially a back seat ride.
36 - Rides: Gemini - Now this is going to get a lot of hate for being my 3rd favorite coaster in the entire park. A lot of people claim that this ride is old and bumpy or not too thrilling. While those claims are mostly true, the ride is not as rough as people think (Except for the ending part). If you are lucky to get a full train with a trim less run (First set of trim breaks), you can actually get 'airtime' on this ride where the ride wasn't even really trying to get airtime. Since this is an arrow dynamics coaster the airtime is less 'calculated' and is very unpredictable and sometimes it happens, sometimes it doesn't, and sometimes its extreme for no reason at all. This is the sole reason why I really like Gemini. Sadly, this season hasn't been too kind to this ride so its capacity has been iffy. With a full train you can experience these crude airtime moments that really change this ride from an okay ride to a great one. Seat 14; blue train has to be my favorite seat but it also depends on the day. Also the atmosphere for this ride is one of my favorites, and I love being fearless and trying to high-five people while going down some of the hills. My favorite parts of the ride have got to be high-fiving on the lift hill, the first drop (More intense than you think), and that one drop where you feel like your going to hit your hands/head. Overall, this ride has a great atmosphere and is one of my all time favorites in the park.
And now for my favorite ride of all time, plus my most ridden ride overall:
176 - Rides: Magnum XL-200 - Yes, I am one of those people, I glaze over this ride way too much but I just can't help it. It is absolutely insane that I have this many rides on this coaster, but I just do. Now before I give my whole heartfelt story about this ride I want to share some statistics of the ride with you all: Phones lost: 34, Phones caught: 2, Other stuff caught: 5, trim less runs: 2, Max amount of re-rides before getting kicked off to wait in line again: 12, most rides in one day: 35, most break downs in a single day: 9, Longest waited time: 45min, Amount of Ejector (3rd seat rides): 8, Amount of times my thighs hurt on this ride: Every time.
Now that I got the statistics out of the way lets go crazy about this ride! First off, this ride is rough and I know its rough, but there are ways around it. Personally I found that seats 2,5,8,11,14,17 to be the best seats, especially seat 17-left side (my favorite), and seats 16, and front seats aren't too bad. I avoid wheel seats at ALL COSTS. If I have to wait 10 extra minutes for a middle seat, I will, only wheel seat I will ride is seat 3 and only once or twice a day. From the fun beginning of the ride and waving hello to the people near the Magnum entrance to the victory lap at the end of the ride most of this ride is pure perfection. This ride in my opinion has the most airtime/ridetime ratio out of any ride in the park, especially in row 1 and 2. For a 62-ish second runtime I get on average about 20+ seconds of airtime per ride. On top of that, since this is a beloved arrow-dynamics coaster this ride has the unpredictable airtime that is not consistent for each row of the car. Where in the front you are pulled forward and in the back you are pulled out of your seat. If you get a full train/trim less run on a hot summer day in the ejector seat you will NEVER ride any other ride that will be that intense. As a person who had the liberty to do that only once, it was the craziest, painful, and most intense adrenaline rush I have ever experienced. On top of that I have had rides with funny people, insane night rides, and I am always excited for the 4 triangle hills at the end that always hit so nicely in row 17.
While I have plenty of good rides, I have also had quite my share of bad rides and experiences as well. Magnum has been having a sad 35th year anniversary and one big issue with the ride is overspeed and wheel friction. A lot of the time the ride will be "rough" not because of the tracking (Except for before the 1st and 2nd tunnel and pretzel part that is always rough), but because of new wheels (that haven't grooved in yet, or bad wheels). This can really be seen in morning rides in empty trains, and overspeed rides without trims. While this makes me sad, I am not sure if the Magnum crew/management can do much about this issue. This can be seen with the black train (Which I was there the day that it was put in its docking place), which hasn't been operational since late July. I missed the days of Late may and mid June of "Magnum is ready" and "Ready Ready", or when the crew when tell you to step through the gates and taunt you for being "too slow or addicted to your phone". This is one thing I hope for during Halloweekends for the black train to make its return and to set Magnum back to its people eating glory.
Overall, Magnum has the most volatile personality out of any rides in the park and has had days where its been happy, sad, angry and etc. I hope to reach 200 rides on this ride as soon as possible.
This concludes my MASSIVE trip report to cedar point this summer and I hope to enjoy it some more for Halloweekends for the first time! I have never experienced halloweekends before so I am looking forwards to enjoying my time in the park once I am on fall break! I apologize for writing a whole book(Especially on Magnum), but I really wanted to share my experience of cedar point this summer, as its been the first time I have been consistently truly happy in awhile. Now hopefully there isn't a word count for reddit because I just spent over an hour typing all of this out (:
- Thank you all for reading, Chris (The guy who asks a bunch of questions on Magnum)